Senators introduce Social Networking Privacy Protection Act

Salem, OR — Senator Bruce Starr (R-Hillsboro), Senator Betsy Close (R-Albany/Corvallis) and
Senator Tim Knopp (R-Bend) have introduced legislation to safeguard the privacy of individuals on
social networking sites.

“Social networking has blurred the lines of personal privacy,” said Starr. “This bill will hopefully set some boundaries, and continue to protect an individual’s right to a personal life.”

Some employers have required job applicants to provide user names and passwords for their social
networking accounts like Facebook. Even if access is not required, often times it is strongly
suggested, leaving applicants feeling coerced into surrendering access.

Senate Bill 499, the Social Networking Privacy Protection Act, prohibits employers and universities, both public and private, from requiring applicants to turn over passwords to their social networking or email accounts. Maryland, Delaware, Illinois, and California have passed similar legislation.

“An employer or university wouldn’t ask for access to someone’s home or personal diary,” said
Close. “Demanding login information for social networking sites is just as invasive, if not more so. An individual’s right to privacy should extend to their life on the internet.”

“Employers would still be allowed to review the public portion of a potential hire’s profile or conduct a traditional background check,” said Knopp. “But to make access to someone’s personal online information a condition of employment just isn’t fair.”

Knopp and returning state Rep. Jason Conger told the group they will fight to uphold the tenets of the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, and will fight efforts to use a tragedy to take away the rights of gun owners, the vast majority of whom have done nothing wrong.

They said they plan to try to make other lawmakers realize that to stop such tragic acts from happening, it's not a matter of limiting guns or ammunition, but rather of better gun knowledge and safety, and more help for the mentally ill.

Conger and Knopp both told the audience the focus should not be on guns, but on mental health care, with Knopp calling the mental health aspect of the mass shooting phenomenon the “most important question."

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Thank you to all the volunteers and voters who made my election to the Oregon State Senate possible. Because of you, we won handily Tuesday night and now I have the honor to serve the citizens of Central Oregon once again.
As I've said before, I think the voters clearly wanted no more politics as usual, no more politics of division, no more class-warfare. The people want their state back, and they want more private sector jobs. We should not stop until everyone who wants a job has an opportunity to get a good job, and that is what I intend to do.

Please Stay in Touch

In the next couple of months I'll be preparing to hit the ground running during the 2013 Legislative Session. Moving forward, I want to continue to hear from my constituents first and most often. I look forward to hearing your ideas about how to get Oregon back to work.

You can always send me an email or give me a call at 541-389-7008. You'll also find updates here on my website and on Facebook.

Thank you to everyone who joined our live telephone town hall! The event was sponsored by the Oregon Health Care Association and focused on issues specifically important to seniors. We were able to talk with 3,000 people and took many good questions from listeners.

Click here if you'd like to listen to a recording of the telephone town hall.

We asked a survey question of our listeners on the call. The results are below!

The Bulletin
Oregon’s lawmakers will have more than enough to keep them busy next year. They must balance the state’s budget and work to relieve government of the terrible and growing burden imposed by the state’s public employees retirement plan. And, topping this region’s list of critical issues is the bonding authority necessary to allow OSU-Cascades to expand to a four-year college.

Tim Knopp, the Republican candidate for state Senate District 27, has hands-on experience with all those problems. His opponent, Geri Hauser, does not.

Knopp was the state representative who crafted much of the last serious round of Public Employees Retirement System reforms back in 2003. Some of what was approved then was later overturned by the courts, but his knowledge of the system will be invaluable next year. Moreover, he has concrete suggestions for reform that will, he believes, pass judicial muster.

Hauser has neither.

Knopp also knows the challenge that comes with balancing the state’s budget during tough economic times. The 2003 PERS reforms were prompted in part by a sluggish economy, and balancing the state’s budget in the 2001-03 biennium required five special sessions. It also required across-the-aisle cooperation, of which Knopp was a part.

Hauser has never worked on a state budget.

Finally, Knopp was an early and forceful advocate for what became the OSU-Cascades branch campus, joining the late Ben Westlund’s effort to assure that economic uncertainty did not bring an end to what was, at the time, an experiment in something new. Between them, they bought the campus time to establish itself as a vital part of Oregon higher education.

Hauser supports the campus, though she has no experience in getting the finances it needs to thrive.

Knopp is the only candidate in the Senate District 27 race with the experience to accomplish what must be accomplished next year. That’s a sound reason to send him to Salem.

Next month we'll be holding a live telephone town hall. This is the first time I have ever done this kind of event and I am excited to have the opportunity to talk to and hear from many people in Central Oregon.

How it works:

On October 4th at 6:30 PM, we will be calling several thousand people in the district asking them to join us for the telephone town hall starting at that moment. All anyone has to do is stay on the line and they'll be connected to the call.

Participants can ask questions just like a radio talk show by pressing *3 on their phone.

How to participate:

If you want to be part of this event, please submit your name and phone number below. We'll call you on the night of the event.

Registration for the Telephone Town Hall has closed. Thank you for your participation.

Tim teeing off at the First Story Golf Tournament[/caption]
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the First Story Golf Tournament. First Story is a housing non-profit helping lower-income families become homeowners. It was an honor to support such a worthy cause.

A Momentous Achievement for Oregon State Univ. - Cascades

I was fortunate enough to be present at a ribbon-cutting ceremony that celebrated the opening of the new Oregon State University-Cascades Graduate & Research Center near downtown Bend.

As someone who was involved with Oregon State’s expansion to eastern Oregon, I am incredibly proud of the strides the University has made here in the last ten-plus years. Not only will this new facility allow students and faculty to expand their research capabilities but it also paves the way for Oregon State - Cascades to eventually have a four-year campus in this part of the state. Continued growth in this direction will be a great thing for the University as well as our community here in Bend.

Breaking Ground for Transitional Care in Bend

While we are achieving significant new things for younger people in Bend, we are also seeing great advancements for those in older generations.

I recently witnessed the groundbreaking ceremony for a new Bend transitional care facility, the Harmony House. This will be a substantial facility that will cater to the needs of many of those in our community to improve their way of life by way of skilled nursing and rehabilitation service and support.

I wanted to share a recent article from The Oregonian that highlights a study conducted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which shows that Oregon now sits among the bottom 10 states nationally in regard to economic stability of families. Since the last study, Oregon has worsened in all four measurements of government data.

What Oregonians primarily need are more long-lasting, private sector jobs. It's time the State Legislature makes this the priority again.

From the News Radio Central Oregon KBNW
BEND, OR -- Recently elected Republican state senate nominee Tim Knopp is push for a phase out of what he calls Oregon’s Death Tax. Knopp said Oregon one of three western states that still has an estate tax on books. The other two states are Washington and Hawaii. Knopp said to make Oregon attractive to businesses and retirees, the Death Tax should be eliminated. He added this shouldn’t be a partisan issue.

“Paying the tax isn’t by party. When you die, they taken your money if you raised to a certain threshold, and these days, the threshold is $1 million. And honestly, over a lifetime, if you think about your parents or your grandparents and what they accumulated, there are a lot of people who end up over that limit.”

Knopp added the current estate tax hurts small businesses, especially farms and ranches, the hardest.

“The opponents will say, ‘We’ve never had a documented case of a farm being sold or going under because of this tax’. No, what [the farmer’s family] has to do is spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to figure out how to avoid this thing, and in many cases, they just sell out to their neighbors.”

Knopp is supporting a petition that, if approved by voters, would phase out the state’s estate tax by:

25% in 2013

50% in 2014

75% in 2015

And on January 1, 2016, the tax is zero

To learn more about the estate tax, and Knopp’s efforts, visit End Oregon Death Tax's Website.

Independence Day is just around the corner. It is, among many things, a time to reflect on and celebrate the hard fought, fundamental values on which we stand.

Before you fire up the old BBQ, think about the fact that the carefully planned government created by our founding fathers was not only designed to protect our independence but gives us the responsibility to work for change when there is a need.

I believe we should take every opportunity we can to preserve freedom in America and in Oregon. I am running for State Senate because I believe there are many areas in our state government that need to change.

Freedom from the Death Tax

I am pleased to say that supporters of the initiative to end Oregon's death tax have collected the minimum number of signatures for the petition to be placed on the November 2012 ballot. However, it is important to continue to collect signatures because, if history is any guide, the Secretary of State could throw out quite a number of them by the time all the counting is done.

For this reason, if you have not signed the petition yet, please go to endoregondeathtax.com. Download the petition, sign it, ask your friends and family to sign it, and mail it in (address is found with the petition information).

Today is the last day to mail in petitions!
If you cannot get your petition in the mail today, you may drop it off on Thursday by 3 PM at the Central Oregon Builders Association:

1051 NE 4th St
Bend, OR 97701
(541) 389-1058

PERS Reform: the Time to Act is Now

Recently I saw an article in the Oregonian that talked about how our schools will continue to suffer as the costs associated with the Public Employee Retirement System (or PERS) rise.

This is a serious problem that is getting out of hand. It is up to the Legislature to make substantial reforms to PERS. We cannot continue to ignore a crisis that is becoming detrimental to our educational system.

As your State Senator, I will push the right type of reforms to mend this injured system just as I did in 2003 as chair of the House PERS Committee.

From KTVZ.comBEND, Ore. -- Bend State senate candidate Tim Knopp is no stranger to being outspent in past campaigns. He says what you really need is enough money to get your message out.

Knopp estimates it takes between $150,000 and $200,000 to beat an incumbent.

Right now, with two weeks before ballots are counted, he's on the track to doing just that.

Knopp has been busy going to door to door with his family.

"The only expense there really is the brochures that you are handing out, so that's the small part of the budget," Knopp said.

Most of his campaign money goes to ads on television and radio, or in the newspaper and direct mail, as well as billboards and lawn signs.

Knopp has had enough to do all of it, and the numbers speak for themselves.

According to the secretary of state's website, ORESTAR, Knopp has raised more than $136,000 and already has spent $123,000 of that.

His challenger, Senator Chris Telfer, on the other hand, has raised $48,000 and has spent $44,000.

"I've been in the community a long time and know a lot of people, and I know a lot of organizations ,and they've been just very supportive in the past," Knopp said.

"Tim Knopp has raised a great deal of money in just a very short time," said Laurie Gould, Deschutes County Democrats chairwoman, who has been following the race closely.

"Chris seems to have more of a bankroll than Tim does, it doesn't mean Tim doesn't raise some money at the last minute toward more media buys and getting his message out," Gould said.

According to the Website, Knopp has only $12,000 left to spend, while Telfer, who had a previous balance of $20,000 from last year, has $24,000 to spend in the remaining 12 days.

"It gives you an idea of their different campaign strategies," Gould said. "They look at peoples' voting patterns and who votes early in that two-week period when you have your ballot at home and who's going to vote later."

"The people clearly have responded to my running," Knopp said. "Obviously I hope that translates to people who are going to support me in the election when they vote for me."

Telfer declined to comment for this story.

Gould worked on Democrat Judy Stiegler's successful campaign against Republican incumbent Chuck Burley for the House District 54 seat in 2008. That was considered the most expensive race in Oregon history for an Oregon House seat.

From KTVZ.comBEND, Ore. -- Deschutes County Republican candidates in the May primary wanted to get their messages out to the public, so the candidates spoke at the Awbrey Glen Golf Club in Bend Sunday afternoon.

Every county GOP candidate in the May primary was there.

If you haven't received your ballot in the mail yet, you should receive it by Tuesday (or contact your county clerks' office).

But before you vote, the candidates wanted to make sure you were voting for the right candidate -- themselves.

One of the most-watched races in the state this primary season is for the state senate 27th District seat, between incumbent Chris Telfer and challenger Tim Knopp -- a rare challenger to an incumbent legislator.

"The unemployment rate is not just statistics on a page," Knopp told the audience. "It's not numbers on a page. It's 7,000 people who have names and faces, many of which I know I have seen and have suffered. I think we can do better, and I think we can turn this thing around."

"I have been able to bring thousands of jobs to this area, millions of dollars and numerous economic opportunities -- and yes, I think those will have an impact on unemployment," Telfer said.

Whoever ends up winning the primary will face off against Democrat Geri Hauser in November.

The other contested race is for circuit court judge, the seat for Andrew Sullivan. It's a non-partisan position, but all four candidates were on hand Sunday: Thomas Spear, Aaron Brenneman, Andrew Balyeat and Beth Bagley.

Also speaking at Sunday's forum were the two Republican candidates for Deschutes County Commissioner Position 2, Tom Greene and Phillip Henderson. The winner of that contest will face Democratic incumbent Allan Unger this fall.

State Reps. Jason Conger and Gene Whisnant are running for re-election, but don't have a Republican challenger. Conger will face Democrat Nathan Hovenkamp in November; Whisnant also has not drawn a Democratic foe.

Two candidates for Bend City Council also were there, though their races will be on the November general election ballot. Ed Barbeau plans to run for Mayor Jeff Eager's seat (he has announced he won't seek another term and Victor Chudowsky is running for Greene's seat.

The Republican candidate for secretary of state, Knute Buehler of Bend, spoke at the end of Sunday's forum.

Tualatin, OR - The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) announces its endorsement of Tim Knopp, Republican from Deschutes County, in the Republican Primary race for Senate District 27. ONA represents nurses throughout the district, including nurses at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend and Redmond.

Nurse members from the district voted to endorse Knopp as the clear choice in the primary race, citing his lifelong connection to the community, his leadership on a wide range of issues such as safe nurse staffing legislation and his long experience in effective governance in the state Legislature. Senate District 27 includes most of Deschutes County.

Steve Rooney, RN, President of ONA and a nurse at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, said, “ONA supports Tim because he is exactly the kind of strong advocate his community needs in the state Senate. We can count on Tim to champion issues of importance to nurses, such as safe nurse staffing and affordable access to health care. These are crucial issues for nurses in the district, and for the patients that we serve. Tim is the right choice in this election.”

Oregon’s 2012 Primary will be held on May 15, with ballots mailed between April 27 and May 1, 2012.

During his tenure in the Oregon State House of Representatives from 1999 – 2005, Knopp served as the Majority Leader and was awarded two “Friends of Nursing” awards for his commitment to nursing issues. Knopp was also inducted into the ONA Legislative Hall of Fame after he left the House of Representatives for his career-long support of priority nursing issues.

Tim Knopp said, "As a legislator it's important to listen to the issues of concern surrounding health care and support quality nurses and care providers as they try to improve care for all Central Oregoinan's. My family has received life-saving care from many of the professional men and women working at St. Charles Medical Center and it's an honor to have their endorsement in my campaign for State Senate."

The Oregon Nurses Association encourages all Senate District 27 Republicans to join our nurses in voting for Tim Knopp for State Senate.

More information on ONA’s other endorsements can be found online at OregonRN.org.

(Bend, OR.)—Tim Knopp,Former Oregon House Majority Leader and three-term State Representative, is running for state Senate, District 27. Knopp announced he’s received endorsement of the Taxpayer’s Association of Oregon.

In a statement the Taxpayers Association said, “Tim Knopp has won several Taxpayer Watchdog awards for his longstanding work towards limiting Oregon property taxes, opposing a sales tax as well as opposing all personal and small business income tax increases and opposing gas tax increases. Knopp also provided leadership on Ballot Measure 86 in 2000 that put the Kicker in the Constitution, working side-by-side with the Taxpayer’s Association of Oregon (TAO). In 2003 he led the effort to reform PERS and again worked closely with TAO. With just these two legislative successes he helped save Oregon taxpayers several billion dollars.”

Tim Knopp said, “I’m honored to receive this endorsement from Oregon’s premiere Taxpayer protection group and I have always appreciated the Taxpayers Association of Oregon’s help an input. If Oregon is to thrive again and reach our economic potential we must have sound tax policy and lower taxes that will help small business create more private sector jobs.”

While Tim Knopp was in the legislature he protected and enhanced the Senior and Disabled Citizen’s property tax deferral program, lowered personal property taxes for small businesses and opposed new job killing regulations that strangle businesses.

Knopp received awards from the Taxpayers Association of Oregon during his three-terms in the Oregon House including the Taxpayer Medal of Honor and the Taxpayer Watchdog Award.